In the year 1838 the Neapolitan government granted a monopoly to a French company for the trade in sulphur. By the terms of the agreement the producers were required to sell their sulphur to the company at certain fixed prices, and the latter paid the government the sum of $350,000 annually in consideration of this requirement. This, however, was not a success, and tended to curtail the sulphur industry, and the government, discovering the agreement to be against its interests, annulled it, and established a free system of production, charging an export tax per ton only. At that time sulphuric acid was derived exclusively from sulphur. Hence the demand from all countries was great, and the prices paid for sulphur were high. It was about this period that the sulphur industry was at its zenith. The monopoly having been abolished, every mine did its utmost to produce as much sulphur as possible, and from the export duty exacted by the government there accrued to it a much larger revenue than that which it received during the period of the monopoly. The progress of science has, however, modified the state of things since then, as sulphur can now be obtained from pyrite or pyrite of iron. This discovery immediately caused the price of sulphur to fall, and the great demand therefore correspondingly ceased. In England, at the present time, it is understood that two-thirds of the sulphuric acid used is manufactured from pyrites. The decrease in prices caused many of the mines to suspend operations, and as a result the sulphur remained idle in stock. In 1884 an association was formed at Catania with a view to buying up sulphur thus stored away at the mines and various ports at low prices, and store it away until a favorable opportunity should present itself for the sale thereof. This had the effect of increasing the prices of sulphur in Sicily for some time, and the producers, discovering that the methods of the association increased the foreign demand for their produce as well as its prices, exported it directly themselves, thus breaking up the association referred to, as it was no longer a profitable concern. The railroad system, which in later years has placed the most important parts of Sicily in communication with the seaboard, has been most beneficial to the sulphur industry. A great saving has been made in transporting it to the ports. This was formerly (as stated) accomplished by carts drawn by mules at an enormous expense, as the roads were wretched, and unless some person of distinction contemplated passing over them, repairs were unknown. Palermo, March 20, 1888. * * * * * AN AUTOMATIC STILL. BY T. MABEN.